OAKVILLE, Ontario -- On a Canada team with one returning player from the last edition of the tournament, Tristan Luneau is being counted on to bring his professional experience to what otherwise is an inexperienced group at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship.
“That’s one of the talks we had,” Luneau said this month at selection camp. “It was a quick talk, but they want me to bring that experience on the ice, that maturity and be a leader.”
Luneau was not a part of Canada’s 2023 gold medal-winning team, but the 19-year-old defenseman has played seven NHL games with the Anaheim Ducks this season, giving him more pro experience than most of the players for Canada at the 2024 World Juniors, which will be held Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Until the Boston Bruins assigned forward Matthew Poitras to play in the tournament Monday, Luneau led all Canada players in NHL games (27) coming into the tournament.
“I think he will have a huge impact,” Canada coach Alan Letang said of Luneau. “… He’s going to take on probably a leadership role. I think Anaheim did a great job working on the little things with him. He looks like he’s gotten stronger, so that’s a bonus for us.”
Luneau broke training camp with the Ducks and played his first NHL game Oct. 19 against the Dallas Stars. He had one shot on goal in 15:59 of ice time.
“I was focused on playing some good defense (coming into training camp) and being hard to play against,” Luneau said. “That was the main focus for the start of the season, and I think that helped me a lot, just working with great coaches there and learning the way the NHL game is played.”
Luneau said that even in a short time at the NHL level, scoring three points (one goal, two assists) in seven games, the experience helped him improve.
“I got some chances to get into some games and even in the practices,” Luneau said, “just working on being tough to play against and being good defensively and never losing body position on the forwards, I think that’s the main improvements in my game the NHL experience led to.”
Luneau, who was selected by Anaheim in the second round (No. 53) of the 2022 NHL Draft, has two assists in six games for San Diego of the American Hockey League this season after having 83 points (20 goals, 63 assists) in 65 games with Gatineau of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last season. Getting a taste of the NHL gave him valuable perspective on how to handle unfamiliar pressure as he prepares to take on a significant role with Canada.
“The first NHL game was pretty impressive I would say, the first time being in a real NHL game and not [an] exhibition,” Luneau said. “It was a great experience, but other than that, it’s the same game, just everybody executes way better, battles are way harder to win, but I kind of expected that because I played some preseason games. I was playing with great defensemen and great teammates in Anaheim, so that definitely made it easier for me.”
Luneau said one of the players who particularly helped him feel comfortable during training camp and his time with the Ducks was veteran defenseman Radko Gudas.
“He’s just an awesome guy to be around,” Luneau said. “He competes so hard on the ice, but when he’s off the ice, everything is light, everything is funny and he likes having fun. It was lots of fun being around him and he has a great mind for hockey. You talk to every player who’s played with him, everybody likes him. Nobody is going to say Radko is a bad teammate, so it just says a lot about him.”
Gudas said he always makes a point of speaking with younger teammates to help them early in their careers and was impressed by what he saw from Luneau.
“Making the NHL roster at this age, he was always taking anything that the coaches tell him,” Gudas told NHL.com on Tuesday, “and I just showed him the way you’re supposed to show up every day at the game, practices, how to be a good pro and have good habits. I think it’s important to speak with the young guys and he was always hungry to learn.
“... He’s a big skater (6-foot-1, 195 pounds), he knows when to be offensive-minded, sometimes a little too much, but that’s part of the process of being young and hungry to make those plays. But for a kid who is 19 years old, he’s way ahead of a lot of kids his age.”
